Durbridge and Gillow power to Australian time trial titles

Battling strong, gusting winds which were strong enough to cause 2011 Australian road race champion Jack Bobridge to crash out of the event, his GreenEdge team-mate Luke Durbridge powered to victory in the Elite time trial championships.

The tall rider showed the same strength that earned him the world under 23 time trial crown, beating former double champion Cameron Meyer (GreenEdge) by seven seconds and triple Elite world champion Michael Rogers (Team Sky) by sixteen.

“To win the national titles, in this field, in my first year in the professional tour is amazing,” he said after the 38.2 kilometre test.

“I am a very passionate Australian and I just can’t be happier to be able to wear the green and gold and represent my country throughout the whole year. It hasn’t really sunk it yet.”

2011 Santos Tour Down Under winner Meyer was defending his title and had hoped to make it three in row; he was frustrated to miss out, but also praising in his congratulations.

“Seven seconds…obviously you're disappointed in some ways and you think 'where did that seven seconds come from, why didn't you push a little bit harder in different areas?’ But Luke was definitely the man today, he showed he has very good form and he showed that in the road race,” he said. "It's definitely a healthy sign for Australian time trialling.”

Durbridge’s performance is all the more impressive as he is just twenty years of age, and would have been eligible to continue in the Under 23 category for a couple more seasons. However after winning the world title plus taken time trial victories in the Olympias Tour and Chrono Champenois, as well as team pursuit gold at the world championships, he felt it was time to step up.

GreenEdge offered a contract and he was happy to accept. “Riding under 23, it would have been fantastic knowing I could ride this year with the rainbow jersey,” he said. “But I decided to ride pro for this year and hopefully will be for the next ten years or so. I think I made the right decision.”

Rogers is certainly clear about the winner’s ability. With three Elite rainbow jerseys to his credit, he’s a good judge and makes it clear that the right rider won. “Hats off to Luke, he's ridden well and it was tough out there,” he said. “It was certainly tough with that wind, it was a real slog. But hats off to Luke, he was the strongest.”

The difficulty of the conditions is reflected by the fact that Durbridge, the best rider on the day, admitted that he actually thought he had blown his chances.

“I went really hard at the start, but I sort of ran out of gears down the back straight,” he explained. “I think I was going sixty plus kilometres an hour, but as soon as I turned left into the head wind, I thought my time trial was over.

“All my watts dropped and I started to feel terrible, but Stevo (Neil Stephens) just talked me through it and told me I just had to ride through the section. Then, once I could see Luke Roberts and Mick Rogers ahead of me, I went as hard as I could at the top of the hill which was five kilometre to the finish.

“Stevo was in my ear the whole way and it was getting quite annoying actually, I just wanted to finish.”

The latter point is a controversial one; the team convinced race organisers to drop the standard ruling that no radios should be used in events such as the national time trial championships. Some other competitors are known to have been unhappy with that decision, as its unlikely all the riders would have had a chance to get and use radios at short notice.

More GreenEdge success in women’s event:

Having clocked up several wins in the national championships, the GreenEdge setup had another rider on the top step of the podium today when Queensland's Shara Gillow utterly dominated the women’s event.

Her victory was more clear cut that that of team-mate Durbridge, as she covered the 27.1 kilometre course a cool one minute 14 seconds ahead of South Australia’s Taryn Heather. Victoria's Bridie O'Donnell was one second further back, netting bronze.

Gillow averaged 43 kilometres per hour to go over a minute faster than her time last year.

“It was pretty windy out there today and being the start of the season, I just wanted to have a good race,” she said.

“I probably started out a bit too fast, but I went out there today doing a bit of an experiment. I'm learning so much as I go and I just tried a few different things today. There’s always some things you can change, but I’m pretty happy with how it went.”

Heather was also second last year, having taken up the sport quite late. He admitted afterwards that she was surprised to get silver. “Shara overtook me and I didn't realise I was still in second place, so I am pretty happy I still came away with the silver,” she said.

“I trained pretty hard for both the road race and the time trial, but maybe with some more racing and steady training, hopefully I can get up on the top of the podium next year.”

The GreenEdge AIS women’s team has had a superb start to the season, taking two stages plus the overall victory in the Jayco Bay criterium series and then netting the criterium championships victory with Alexis Rhodes and the women’s road race with Amanda Spratt.

Gillow was delighted to be part of that, but made it clear that she has other goals. “We have been really racing well the GreenEDGE girls, and what could be better than taking out all three jerseys,” she said.

“Today’s result is great, I’m really happy to be able to back up after last year, but for me the bigger picture is the Olympics. I’m aiming for gold in London.”

Under 23 contests see road race champions triumph again:

Jayco AIS rider Sinead Noonan followed up on her gold medal in the under 23 category in the women’s road race when she beat New South Wales’ Lauren Kitchen and West Australia's Sarah Kent by 22 and 25 seconds respectively.

“I am pretty overwhelmed at the moment, to get both [wins] is pretty exciting,” she said. “I am looking forward to going overseas with the Jayco AIS team this year now, getting more experience riding with the pros and seeing what I can do.”

Team-mate Rohan Dennis made it two for the squad in the time trial when he beat team-mate Damian Howson by fifteen seconds to win the under 23 title. Tasmania’s Campbell Flakemore was three seconds further back and was left rueing a crash inside the final ten kilometres that cost him a higher finish.

“I can’t describe this, I keep saying it is a perfect start to the year,” said 21 year old Dennis, who also triumphed in the road event three days ago. “It was a dream of mine to win the road race as I have never won one before at a senior level, so to win both jerseys is a dream come true in my last year of under 23s,” said Dennis.

“(This race) definitely wasn’t going to be an easy one, but all of us Jayco guys have been training really hard. “I certainly wasn’t coming into here expecting to win everything, but I am lucky enough and happy enough to come up with both jerseys. I have been working for the time trial ever since I started training this season and have worked really hard with Tim (Decker), so to claim them both, just goes to show all the hard work has paid off.”

His road race performance had already earned him a place on the UNI SA Australia team for the Santos Tour Down Under; today’s result gives him additional motivation at this early point of the year.